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Topeka branch of SearchTec sued for dropping documents in dumpsters

A building at 112 S.W. 7th Street contains the Topeka office of SearchTec Inc., a Pennsylvania company. (Justin Wingerter/The Capital-Journal)

A building at 112 S.W. 7th Street contains the Topeka office of SearchTec Inc., a Pennsylvania company. (Justin Wingerter/The Capital-Journal)

In a lawsuit filed this week, the Kansas Attorney General’s Office accused a Topeka business of violating state law by disposing of more than 34,000 documents in public dumpsters.

The lawsuit filed in Shawnee County District Court on Tuesday alleges two employees at SearchTec Inc., 112 S.W. 7th Street, repeatedly disposed of records containing personal information by leaving them in dumpsters or trash cans in the city “without rendering the personal information unreadable or undecipherable.”

An employee answering the phone at SearchTec on Thursday afternoon said no one was available to comment on the lawsuit. Mechelle Pagan, a regional vice president, said by email Friday that the company had received the lawsuit.

“We will be interested to see the evidence on which this lawsuit is based,” Pagan said.

SearchTec conducts public record searches and legal research for businesses, according to its website and the lawsuit. Despite collecting and routinely disposing of information that includes sensitive information, the company does not have a paper shredder, the A.G.’s office alleges.

“On or about December 12, 2016,” according to the lawsuit, “defendants disposed of such documents at a trash receptacle located at the United States Postal Office located at 424 S. Kansas Avenue, Topeka, Kansas 66603. The contents of the trash receptacle were readily available to persons who were not authorized to access such personal information.”

In the past two years, SearchTec employees have dumped 34,110 documents in publicly-accessible waste bins, according to the lawsuit.

The company is charged with five counts: two violations of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act and three violations of the Wayne Owen Act, a section of the KCPA that went into law last July. Two employees are named in the lawsuit.

The A.G.’s office is seeking restitution for SearchTec customers totaling an unspecific amount, along with $10,000 for each violation of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act.

A request for a temporary restraining order to stop SearchTec’s alleged document disposals was granted by Shawnee County District Judge Teresa Watson on Wednesday.